Picture This: Bank Exec Cheronda Buyton Booted After Partying in Malibu Mansion

By: Ryan Smith
Topics: Daily Blotter

(AP)

MALIBU, Calif. (CBS/AP) With movie stars as neighbors and parties that lasted until morning, Cheronda Guyton, a bank exec, probably thought she had it made big. Certainly her 3,800-square-foot beachfront home in exclusive Malibu, Calif., was plenty big.

Problem was the mansion wasn't hers. The Wells Fargo honcho was squatting in the home of a couple her bank had recently booted because they could not make their payments.

Well, the upscale Southern California squatter got the ax this week, after Wells Fargo found out that this senior vice president stayed at the bank-owned $12 million beach house, in the exclusive Malibu Colony, when it was not hers.

The bank says the executive violated company policy. Neighbors complained to the Los Angeles Times that the woman and her family were using a house that was supposed to be empty.

Bank spokeswoman Jennifer Langan confirmed that Guyton was the only employee involved in the alleged violation of company policy.

"We deeply regret the activities that have taken place as they do not reflect the conduct we expect of our team members," the bank said in a statement.

No phone listings could be located for Guyton.

The previous homeowners, Lawrence and Linda Elins, turned over the house to Wells Fargo in May. Their real estate agent said they were financially devastated by Bernard Madoff's fraud scheme and had to sign the property over to Wells Fargo to help pay a larger debt.

The home was not foreclosed and the bank agreed not to immediately sell it, Langan said.

Neighbors told the Times they saw Guyton's family at the house and that it was used for at least one party where guests were ferried from a yacht.

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by sryan212 September 19, 2009 2:46 PM EDT: Ms. Guyton is certainly guilty of poor judgment in this instance. At the same time, I can?t help seeing her as a victim of circumstance to a large degree. At bottom the story contains two combustible elements - a large bank that received billions of taxpayer dollars in possession of foreclosed home, and a pair of displaced Madoff victims.

In a way, Ms. Guyton's responsibility for her situation parallels the complicity of many if not most of Madoff's victims in their own swindling:

http://www.pecuniarius.com/blog/?p=187; Reply to this comment